Olympus Has Fallen

1½ pipes out of 4

Olympus has fallen and it can’t get up. Even with an all star cast of Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Gerard Butler and Ashley Judd, it just can’t seem to get off the ground. Besides the fact that the premise that the White House could ever be taken in 15 minutes is ridicules, Olympus Has Fallen appears to be a bad rip off of the original Die Hard. It is complete with all of the action movie clichés, with the classic double cross, there being only one person that can save the day and a hard nosed general who hates the protagonist for being better at life than he is. There are so many similarities it could be viewed as a Die Hard reboot to the naked eye. Another interesting fact is that while Morgan Freeman makes a descent president, he continues the trend in Hollywood if having a black man as the acting president whenever there is a horrible tragedy, remember deep impact? The 5^th Element? 2012? Aaron Eckhart plays the original president who gets taken hostage and has to show his bravado of everyone else can give up their codes to the nukes because he won’t give up his. Since he won’t give up his there is no point for others to resist, by this logic the fate of the entire world rests on one man when it could have remained on 3. Ashley Judd makes a brief appearance as the First Lady until tragedy strikes and Gerard Butler, head of secret service security detail to the president, is demoted to a desk job. Soon after, all hell breaks loose at the White House and Butler is called upon to unleash is inner BAMF. One thing that the film does have going for it is that Rick Yune does a wonderful job portraying a genius yet insane villain with realism, going so far as executing a hostage on camera after a failed attempt by the Navy Seals to retake the White House. The action is relatively nonstop which does help disguise the discrepancies making this a nice film to curl up on the couch on a Saturday night with popcorn and the $1 price of red box. 

Battle: Los Angeles

2 ½ pipes out of 4 

This is another alien invasion movie and may seem predictable. That is where you’re wrong because this movie is not as predictable as you might think. The director throws a nice right hook to all other alien invasion films that figure out how to kill the aliens and wrap up their defeat in ten minutes or less. Battle: LA follows Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) and a group of marines that he is leading into the battle zone and behind enemy lines in Los Angeles during an Alien invasion to rescue civilians trapped in a police station. The Aliens are said to be invading for our resources and the first rule of colonization is to eliminate the indigenous population. Nantz clashes with the 2^nd Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez) who is a month out of officer’s school and incredibly inexperienced. You may remember Rodriguez from his comedic role in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Shia Labeouf’s quirky roommate but in this movie takes a drastic shift from that role being much more serious. The topic of the military is very close to my heart because I have a brother in the military so I can always picture him in these types of situations. Battle: LA can be quite depressing at times because a lot and I mean a lot of people die. There are several holes in the plot of this film such as if a Forward Operating Base has been destroyed and the marines can’t contact anyone on the radio during most of the movie, how is it that when they need and air strike called in they get right through and the missiles come without delay? There are more like this but the movie does have you on the edge of your seat from the first 15 minutes to the closing credits. There is nonstop action all throughout this film so there are not a whole lot of places to insert great acting scenes. If you are looking for a great acting and great action film like District 9 you won’t find it hear but if you’re just looking for a great action film with small moments of good acting than this is the movie for you.